


everything perfect

by weekend_conspiracy_theorist



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/F, it's not official until somebody tells joe, secret relationship reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 07:30:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6146170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weekend_conspiracy_theorist/pseuds/weekend_conspiracy_theorist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iris and Caitlin have been hiding their relationship on the off chance that nothing comes of it, but now that things are starting to solidify, they decide that it's time to tell everyone.</p>
<p>(And for once, Barry isn't completely oblivious.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	everything perfect

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dragdragdragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragdragdragon/gifts).



> for Jamie, who looked at the "imagine this is Iris and Cait telling everyone they're dating" tag on [ this ](http://lisasneeze.tumblr.com/post/140251084531) gifset and said "yes that's exactly what that is, and you just KNOW that Joe could not possibly argue when there is that much love in their eyes"
> 
> she's a doll and I love her

Iris sets one hand about a foot from the edge of Caitlin's keyboard, leaning in just a hair closer than necessary to say, "Hey," a grin stretching over her lips. (She has no idea what her eyes look like, of course, but she's pretty sure that 'sparkling' would be an appropriate adjective.)

 

Caitlin looks up, the rhythmic clacking of keys stuttering for a second as her eyes flick up to Iris's, down to her lips, and back to her computer screen. A light flush of pink spreads across her cheeks, the corners of her eyes crinkling even as she works very hard to bite back her smile. "Hi."

 

"Whatcha workin' on?" Iris asks, even though she's already been clued into the minutiae. (Cait had spent several hours the previous evening ranting about their latest metahuman, who has so far proved both elusive and obnoxious, though fairly harmless to anything but previously graffiti-less walls.)

 

"Just trying to figure out how they're pulling off the whole invisibility shtick," Cait says, nonchalantly reaching over to pull out the chair next to her and patting the seat. "Feel free to keep me company; it's probably going to take a while."

 

Iris hums. "It would be inhumane to leave you here alone," she agrees, lets a hand trail along the back of Caitlin's chair as she wanders from one side of her to the other—resists the urge to run her hand down the shiny, perfect waves of Cait's hair instead. (Knows from experience that Cait would lean back into the gesture, smile up at Iris appreciatively.)

 

Her phone buzzes as she flops down and rolls herself close enough for her knee to just brush Cait's thigh. She knows, before she's even gotten it out of her pocket, that it's Barry. Sure enough—

 

[6:03] **Gummy Bear:** singh wants me 2 catch up on pprwk bc he thinks im behind

 

[6:03] **Gummy Bear:** im NOT but that’s p suspicious tbh

 

[6:03] **Gummy Bear:** so i hve 2 hide in my lab  & pretend 2 b diligent

 

[6:03] **Gummy Bear:** im bored

 

[6:03] **Gummy Bear:** whats up

 

Iris snorts, rolls her eyes—considers pointing out that he could just go down the side of the building, do whatever he felt like doing for a few hours, then return the same way, but really, if he can't figure that out on his own, he deserves to suffer.

 

[6:05] **Me:** keeping cait company at star labs while she works

 

She's barely set the phone down when Barry responds—damn speed texting.

 

[6:05] **Gummy Bear:** u 2 hve been v… CHUMMY lately

 

[6:06] **Me:** that's what happens when people are friends

 

[6:06] **Me:** I know that's a strange and confusing concept to you, though, since you have no friends

 

[6:07] **Gummy Bear:** chnged my mind; im txting joe 4 entertainment

 

[6:07] **Gummy Bear:** ur 2 mean

 

Iris sets her phone on the table, resisting the urge to grin. Cisco's out on a date, Wally's visiting friends over in National City, the Wellses have been taking a break from STAR Labs since they finally got their house set up- new IDs courtesy Felicity Smoak- and Joe is helping train a new recruit to the metahuman taskforce, so with Barry's "unfortunate" predicament, that _officially_ clears everyone out of the lab but them.

 

Caitlin glances over at her, one eyebrow rising. "Everything good?"

 

"Everything _perfect_ ," Iris declares, grabbing Cait's chair and tugging her around, away from her work and towards Iris—Cait's fingers hit a dozen erroneous keys as she goes, and she squeals in surprise, yanking her arms in tight to her chest as she stares at Iris in betrayal.

 

"What on _Earth_ ," she squeaks out, and Iris beams, knocking Cait's knees with her own as she leans forward to peck her on the lips lightly.

 

"Barry's stuck at work for at least two hours," she explains.

 

Cait huffs, rolling her eyes, but Iris knows that she's pleased. A tiny, legitimate smile threatens at the corners of her lips, and she lets her elbows drop to the arm rests of her chair, the line of her shoulders visibly relaxing. "You know Cisco likes checking the camera feeds, though," she points out.

 

"Well." Iris wrinkles her nose slightly, shoulders lifting in a shrug. "It feels like about time we told them, anyway, you know?"

 

She's been thinking it for a while—keeping the changing state of their relationship a secret had been a solid plan when they were still testing the waters, when they were tentatively thinking of their previously platonic coffee dates in a new light and trying to figure out if either of them was really ready for this yet. After all, they had no intentions of ending their friendship should they decide their awkward foray into romance was ill-fated, so things wouldn't change for the group at large either way.

 

But now that things are settling, solidifying… there's the possibility of lover's quarrels or even a true break-up, there's a desire for casual touches and date nights that don't take place far out of their way in order to avoid prying eyes.

 

(Sneaking around, they've mutually agreed, hasn't been nearly as fun as TV makes it look.)

 

Cait's smile widens slightly. "You think so?" she asks, and Iris thinks that tone in her voice is a touch smug, a touch flattered. Letting everyone else know means they're serious about each other, after all. She bites her lip, reaches out to smooth a hand over Iris's shoulder before admitting, "Me, too."

 

Iris feels a pleasant warmth spread through her chest, sets her hand over Cait's and squeezes lightly. "Next time we're all together without a metahuman threat hanging over our head, then."

 

Cait leans in, her fingers curling into Iris's shirt to pull her in to meet the kiss—it's not a verbal confirmation, but Iris knows what she means anyway.

 

***

 

Iris ushers Joe and Wally into the lab, ignoring their half-annoyed, half-amused grumbling in favor of guiding them to the chairs ready and waiting for them—she and Caitlin moved one for each of them, Barry, and Cisco into the main portion of the lab, giving themselves a) a stage of a sort and b) the door at their back should an escape prove necessary for whatever unlikely reason.

 

(Hopefully they won't need to make an escape, though; it's not like they can outrun Barry.)

 

They got tired of waiting for an opportunity to organically appear, after the previous week's lull turned into three or four dangerous metahumans on the run at once, so they called everyone together. (Well, not the Wellses, but honestly their relationship has little relevance to either of them.)

 

"Am I the only one starting to get a little freaked?" Wally asks, making a face as Iris plops him down, and Barry just shrugs from where he's slouched in his seat, a slight grin on his face.

 

"I'm sure it's no big deal," he says, wiggles his eyebrows slightly at Iris.

 

She rolls her eyes at him as she rolls Joe a little closer to the others. (She'd really expected Barry to be the _last_ person to notice anything was happening, but he'd showed up at Iris's when he couldn't sleep one night and- despite how _legitimately innocent_ the evening had been- he'd obviously gotten something in his head from finding Caitlin over there at almost one AM.)

 

Joe catches her wrist before she can move away, levels her with a look that asks a whole lot of questions all at once.

 

"Nothing to worry about," she assures him softly, squeezing his hand.

 

At the same time, Cisco agrees with Wally: "Well, sure, it's probably not about anything dangerous or meta related, but Cait threatened to raid my twizzler stash if I didn't show up, so obviously it's _important,_ and important things can be worrisome."

 

Iris snorts, raises an eyebrow as she moves to take her place by Cait. "Really?" she whispers.

 

"He was in the middle of a game of League when I called," Caitlin mutters back, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "Seemed like the only way to get him to abandon it."

 

Iris snorts, then spins on her heel to face the boys. "Anyway!" she says, loudly, cutting off whatever Barry had been about to retort with, and they all turn their gazes onto her. "Caitlin and I…" she glances over her shoulder, can't help the dopey grin the spreads across her face as Caitlin beams back encouragingly, and lets her hands spread out from her sides in a vague shrug as she continues. "We've been trying to find a time to tell you guys this for the last week or so, but things got pretty crazy pretty fast, so we kept putting it off. We wanted to make sure we didn't miss our window, now that things have called again, so we called you guys in. We just need to tell you…"

 

"We're dating," Caitlin finishes, just like they'd planned, and Iris takes the half step back that will let her slide her hand into Caitlin's.

 

She'd meant to be watching Joe during the reveal, but when she steps back she turns her head to see where she's going—and so she looks at Caitlin instead, can't help but lose her breath a little over the way she's beaming, over how delighted she is to be able to say that now. The look on her face is a little _staggering_.

 

In a _really good way_.

 

Then Barry shouts, "I KNEW IT!", Cisco shoots back, "No way _you_ knew and I didn't", and Iris remembers that she needs to know what Joe thinks. (His disapproval certainly wouldn't even come close to stopping her from dating Cait, but it would hurt.) (Even if she would act like it didn't.) She looks back at her dad, her smile faltering, turning into something small and nervous.

 

Joe is just shaking his head, looking utterly bemused as Barry and Cisco, to his left, devolve into rock-paper-scissors.

 

"I can't say I'm not surprised," he tells her, noticing her attention, "but honey, I'm happy for you."

 

Her gaze flicks over to Wally, her eyebrows rising in silent question, and he laughs. "Hell yeah!"

 

"Hell yeah?" Iris repeats, studying each of them in turn, Cait squeezing her hand, and Joe rises to pull them both in tightly; Wally follows soon after.

 

"Hell yeah," Joe says, gruff, and Barry and Cisco abandon their argument in favor of joining the group hug.


End file.
